RACHEL Reeves visited Scotland on Wednesday – and refused to speak to any of the country’s newspapers.
The Chancellor’s sleekit visit to a whisky distillery in East Lothian lasted long enough for her to take a lengthy tour, if the pictures taken by PA are anything to go by – but simply not long enough for her to spare even a moment for Scotland’s print press.
An invite had been sent around to an extremely select few newspapers late on Tuesday night, but it was swiftly rescinded on Wednesday morning.
Reeves would only speak to two TV channels and the print media could suck a lemon, was the message from the Treasury.
Asked repeatedly by different outlets what exactly had changed, Reeves’s team blamed amorphous “diary constraints” – as if they weren’t the ones in charge of that diary.
Of course, pictures show Reeves’s diary had plenty of time for looking into jugs, ringing bells, sniffing whisky, decanting whisky from a barrel, labelling bottles of whisky, filling bottles of whisky, signing a visitor book, and drinking drams.
These are all things she genuinely did instead of speaking to Scotland’s print media. She couldn’t possibly have skipped one or two of those fun activities.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy spent a jolly few days up in Scotland back in March. She went on visits around the Edinburgh area (where else) with Scotland Office minister Kirsty McNeill and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar. The media didn’t get so much as a heads up.
And Angela Rayner had a wonderful time visiting Scotland in January. She had an equally wonderful time not speaking to any Scottish newspapers.
Why on earth would Labour not want any of their ministers speaking to Scotland’s print media?
The answer is clear enough.
